Black is BEAUTIFUL, point blank!

Hey everyone yeah I know it has been a while but something has been on my mind for the past few days that I would like to talk about. First, lets take a small journey on how I came to this topic. Growing up I was taught that my skin color is a badge of honor and never let anyone demean or take that badge of honor away from you. Also, growing up in Brooklyn, NY, I have always seen love for the most part (especially growing up in Brownsville) of my ppl when dealing with one another. So it was a shock to find out that as I expanded my experiences (living in different areas as well as improving my educational status) that there was a sort of hatred for people who were of a darker-complexion on our color spectrum by none other than black people. At first I brushed it off, considering the few ppl that I met who voiced these opinions as ignorant and didn't know any better when it came to the beauty that is a black woman, no matter what complexion. But as I came across more and more people who felt the same way, it started to bother me more, but I still ignored the need for action.

But that need has been reinvigorated by two events that happened recently. Yesterday, I was having a conversation with a female friend of mine about the lack of good men and women out there (which may actually be another one of my topics in the near future), but one of her arguments was the fact that men, who have a self-hatred for themselves and darker complexions, tend to either move towards the fairer complexion within our color spectrum or just jump ship and date completely outside of the race. I thought on this long and hard, remembering all of the people that I came across, whether male/female who felt this way and slightly agreed with her (other than the fact that she placed the blame solely on black men, which we will get to in a few). The next incident happened probably a few minutes ago when I was reading this article (http://www.beyondblackwhite.com/snoop-dogs-daughter-ugly-houston-we-have-a-disaster/, copy and paste and read). Upon reading the several comments on this message board I started to see that this was a virus within our race that needed to be stamped out as soon as possible so that we can move forward as a people.

Now that is a very grandeur statement but how would you go about doing it, I started to ask myself. Well I came up with a two major points to start this process:

1) Finding the source of the Problem: while I see placing blame on a particular party as counter-productive in some ways, I feel by identifying the source at least in some circumstances can place a focal point on what needs to be done. Now I wont say one particular party is to blame but I will place my ideas out there for each party that has a hand in it:
Black Men: Sorry to say but we are the start of this ugly trend. We have allowed European culture to influence us to the point that we see a darker complexion as being "not attractive or ugly". By allowing this to influence us, we demean and chastise very beautiful woman because they don't fit society's picture of beauty. Also, as stated in the Bible we are the heads of our household and therefore have the ability to shaped the ideas and thoughts of the next generation. If you feed into the garbage of what is beauty and don't make up your own mind you can definitely pass along this hatred to the later generation (how do you think Klan members did it). We won't even get into the fact that we are not present in the home because that is a whole other can of worms that needs to be discussed fully in a topic all its own. Getting back to the topic at hand, how can we expect to be treated like men when we don't act like men. Men are NOT supposed to degrade themselves or other because of an attribute that they were born with. That is a coward who does not understand his own worth . . . we will leave it at there . . . for now.

Black Women: Some of the most hateful things I have heard while growing up about complexion and the like came from Black Women. This perplexed me to no end because I wonder how it all started. I can guess what the reason were but they would probably hold no ground since I am not a woman (any female readers out there care to chime in, that would be greatly appreciated). But whatever the reason, women nowadays are the head of the household (once again men we need to do better) and can pass along the appropriate teachings to their children, but that doesnt seem the case (especially from that article . . . )

2) Now that we have a focal point, the next step is to make positive strides in the right direction to fully turn this trend around. But that is where you come in as Black Men and Women. I personally believe that we need to start with this generation so that the trend can take hold. Start teaching our children as well as each other that no matter how you look at it BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL. If it wasn't why would people want to gain a fuller shape, or fuller lips and the like. Our skin tone, body shape and overall awesomeness is mimicked by almost every other group yet we are here hating ourselves. What sense does that make and we wonder why we cant move forward as a people. So at home reinforce this thought pattern daily. Children are very impressionable and if you show them the path they should go they will follow it (they may stray every now and again but they always know the proper path). Show them that no matter what shade or complexion they are that they are beautiful and no person out in the world can take that beauty away from them. Instill this in them and empower them so that they can teach the next generation. This is not the only step but we will leave it there for now (but if you have any others please don't hesitate to comment and place them on my wall.)

This is just grazing this topic and it can definitely be fleshed out a bit more fully, but I have church in the morning and I really wanted to place this topic to the world before I hit the sack. So please view, comment, critique and discuss. Thanks everyone and GOD BLESS.